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Centre for Young Musicians – Progression routes in London for young jazz, world music and folk musicians

Using funding from the Department for Children, Schools and Families, The Centre for Young Musicians (CYM) asked the hub in 2008 to undertake a research project into progression routes for highly talented young people learning jazz, world and folk music in inner London. Our brief was twofold: to examine the routes already in place and then to outline how they could be enhanced for the benefit for young Londoners, and to consider what this might mean for CYM in terms of its future provision.

After doing some initial mapping, based on desk research, we started on a long series of 1-1 interviews with reps from all of the relevant local music services and strategic bodies, a variety of London providers across the formal and informal sectors and a range of musicians. Doing this enabled us to build up a picture of provision across those 9 boroughs, produce a gap analysis for each genre and outline the impacts and implications of these gaps. Having done this, we were able to explore a range of potential solutions and test these via a series of follow up interviews and discussion groups. Having honed our thinking we were then able to make a series of strategic recommendations about how CYM might position itself in future and the implications this might have for organisational development.